The document summarizes the Greek myth of Jason and the Argonauts' quest to retrieve the Golden Fleece from Colchis. It describes how King Pelias usurped the throne from Jason's father and an oracle said Pelias would be killed by a descendant of Jason's father. Jason was raised by the centaur Chiron. When Pelias met the one-sandaled Jason, he sent him on a quest to retrieve the Golden Fleece. Jason assembled a crew that included many great heroes. They had many adventures on their journey, including encounters with the Lemnian women and King Amycus. They received guidance from Phineus and passed through the Symplegades rocks. In Colchis, King

1. Sagas
The Argonauts

2. • AFTER the death of King Cretheus the Aeolian, Pelias, son of
Poseidon, already an old man, seized the Iolcan throne from his
half-brother Aeson, the rightful heir. An oracle warned him that
he would be killed by a descendant of Aeson. Pelias put to death
every prominent Aeolian he dared lay hands upon, except Aeson,
whom he spared for his mother Tyro’s sake, but kept a prisoner in
the palace; forcing him to renounce his inheritance.

3. •Now, Aeson had married Polymele, who bore him one
son, by name Diomedes. Pelias would have destroyed the
child without mercy, had not Polymele summoned her
kinswomen to weep over him, as though he were still-
born, and then smuggled him out of the city to Mount
Pelion; where Cheiron the Centaur reared him, as he did
before, or afterwards, with Asclepius, Achilles, Aeneas,
and other famous heroes.

4. •A second oracle warned Pelias to beware a one-sandalled
man and when, one day on the seashore, a group of his
princely allies joined him in a solemn sacrifice to
Poseidon, his eye fell upon a tall, long-haired youth,
dressed in a close-fitting leather tunic and a leopard-skin.
He was armed with two broad-bladed spears, and wore
only one sandal.

5. •On the way down from the hills, Jason had carried
an old woman across the river Anaurus, losing one
sandal as he tried to get a foothold in the mud. The
old woman was the goddess Hera, who thereafter
favored him, just as she remained hostile to Pelias,
who had neglected to sacrifice to her.

6. • When, therefore, Pelias asked the stranger roughly: ‘Who are you,
and what is your father’s name?’, he replied that Cheiron, his
foster-father, called him Jason, though he had formerly been
known as Diomedes, son of Aeson. Pelias glared at him balefully.
’What would you do,’ he enquired suddenly, ‘if an oracle
announced that one of your fellow-citizens were destined to kill
you?’ ‘I should send him to fetch the golden ram’s fleece from
Colchis,’ Jason replied.

7. The Golden Fleece
• The saga concerns the quest for the Golden Fleece by Jason and the crew of
the Argo. The Boeotian king Athamas took as his first wife Nephele, whose
name means "cloud." After bearing Athamas two children, Phrixus and Helle,
she returned to the sky. Athamas then married Ino, one of the daughters of
Cadmus, who attempted to destroy her stepchildren. She also persuaded the
Boeotian women to parch the seed grain so that when it was sown nothing
grew. In the ensuing famine, Athamas sent to Delphi for advice, but Ino
sabotaged the envoys to report that the god advised Athamas to sacrifice
Phrixus if he wanted the famine to end.

8. • As he was about to perform the sacrifice, Nephele snatched Phrixus
and Helle up into the sky and set them on a golden-fleeced ram that
Hermes had given her. The ram carried them eastward through the
heavens. Above the straits between Europe and Asia (the
Dardanelles), Helle fell off and drowned, and the straits were called
the Hellespont after her. Phrixus continued his flight and came to
Colchis, at the eastern end of the Black Sea, where King Aeëtes (son
of Helius and brother of Circe and Pasiphaë) received him with
kindness and gave him his elder daughter, Chalciope, as wife.

9. •Phrixus sacrificed the ram to Zeus Phyxius (i.e., Zeus as
god of escape) and gave the Golden Fleece to Aeëtes,
who hung it up on an oak tree in a grove sacred to Ares,
where it was guarded by a never-sleeping serpent. An
Oracle told Aeetes that he would lose his kingship if he
lost the golden fleece. The fleece, a golden treasure
guarded by a dragon, became a goal for a hero's quest.

10. • When Pelias revealed his identity, Jason was unafraid. He boldly claimed
the throne usurped by Pelias. Pelias feared to deny him his birthright. ‘But
first,’ he insisted, ‘I require you to free our beloved country from a curse!’
g. Jason then learned that Pelias was being haunted by the ghost of
Phrixus, who had fled from Orchomenus a generation before, riding on
the back of a divine ram, to avoid being sacrificed. He took refuge in
Colchis where, on his death, he was denied proper burial; and, according
to the Delphic Oracle, the land of Iolcus, where many of Jason’s Minyan
relatives were settled, would never prosper unless his ghost were brought
home in a ship, together with the golden ram’s fleece.

11. •Jason could not deny Pelias this service, and therefore
sent heralds to every court of Greece, calling for
volunteers who would sail with him. He also prevailed
upon Argus the Thespian to build him a fifty-oared ship;
and this was done at Pagasae, with seasoned timber from
Mount Pelion; after which Athene herself fitted an
oracular beam into the Argo’s prow, cut from her father
Zeus’s oak at Dodona.

13. The Argonauts
• Acastus, son of King Pelias
• Actor, son of Deion the Phocian
• Admetus, prince of Pherae
• Amphiaraus, the Argive seer
• Great Ancaeus of Tegea, son of Poseidon
• Little Ancaeus, the Lelegian of Samos
• Argus the Thespian, builder of the Argo
• Ascalaphus the Orchomenan, son of Ares
• Asterius, son of Cometes, a Pelopian
• Atalanta of Calydon, the virgin huntress
• Augeias, son of King Phorbas of Elis
• Butes of Athens, the bee-master
• Caeneus the Lapith, who had once been a woman

14. • Calais, the winged son of Boreas
• Canthus the Euboean
• Castor, the Spartan wrestler, one of the Dioscuri
• Cepheus, son of Aleus the Arcadian
• Cotonus the Lapith, of Gyrton in Thessaly
• Echion, son of Hermes, the herald
• Erginus of Miletus
• Euphemus of Taenarum, the swimmer
• Euryalus, son of Mecisteus, one of the Epigoni
• Eurydamas the Dolopian, from Lake Xynias
• Heracles of Tiryns, the strongest man who ever lived, now a god
• Hylas the Dryopian, squire to Heracles
• Idas, son of Aphareus of Messene
• Ismon the Argive, Apollo’s son
• Iphicles, son of Thestius the Aetolian

15. • Iphitus, brother of King Eurystheus of Mycenae
• Jason, the captain of the expedition
• Laertes, son of Acrisius the Argive
• Lynceus, the look-out man, brother to Idas
• Melampus of Pylus, son of Poseidon
• Meleager of Calydon
• Mopsus the Lapith
• Nauplius the Argive, son of Poseidon, a noted navigator
• Oileus the Locrian, father of Ajax
• Orpheus, the Thracian poet
• Palaemon, son of Hephaestus, an Aetolian
• Peleus the Myrmidon
• Peneleos, son of Hippalcimus, the Boeotian
• Peridymenus of Pylus, the shape-shifting son of Poseidon

16. • Phalerus, the Athenian archer
• Phanus, the Cretan son of Dionysus
• Poeas, son of Thaumacus the Magnesian
• Polydeuces, the Spartan boxer, one of the Dioscuri
• Polyphemus, son of Elatus, the Arcadian
• Staphylus, brother of Phanus
• Tiphys, the helmsman, of Boeotian Siphae
• Zetes, brother of Calais

17. The Lemnian Women
• the Lemnian men had quarrelled with their wives, complaining that they
stank, and made concubines of Thracian girls captured on raids. In
revenge, the Lemnian women murdered them all without pity, old and
young alike, except Thoas, whose life his daughter Hypsipyle secretly
spared, letting adrift in an oarless boat. Now, when the Argo hove in
sight and the Lemnian women mistook her for an enemy ship from
Thrace, they took their dead husbands’ armour and ran boldly
shoreward, to repel the threatened attack.

18. • The eloquent Echion, however, landing staff hand as Jason’s
herald, soon set their minds at rest; and Hypsipyle called a
council at which she proposed to send a gift of food and wine to
the Argonauts.
• Many children were begotten on this occasion by the other
Argonauts too and, had it not been for Heracles, who was
guarding the Argo and at last strode angrily into Myrine, beating
upon the house doors with his club and summoning his
comrades back to duty.

19. Hylas, Amycus, And Phineus
• AT Heracles’s challenge the Argonauts now engaged in a contest to see who
could row the longest. After many laborious hours, relieved only by Orpheus’s
lyre, Jason and Heracles alone held out; other comrades having each in turn
confessed themselves beaten.
• Jason and Heracles, however, continued to urge the Argo forward, seated on
opposite sides of the ship and suddenly Heracles’s oar snapped. He glared
about him, in anger and disgust; and his weary companions, thrusting their oars
through the oar-holes again, beached the Argo by the riverside.

20. • While they prepared the evening meal, Heracles went in search of a tree
which would serve to make him a new oar. He uprooted an enormous fir,
but when he dragged it back for trimming beside the canal fire, found that
his squire Hylas had set out, an hour or two previously to fetch water from
the near-by pool, and not yet returned. Polyphemus was away, searching
for him.
• Heracles and Polyphemus continued their search all night, and forced every
Mysian whom they met to join in it, but to no avail; the fact being that
Dryope and her sister-nymphs of Pegae had fallen in love with Hylas, and
enticed him to come and live with them in an underwater house.

21. •At dawn, a favourable breeze sprang up and, since
neither Heracles nor Polyphemus appeared, though
everyone shouted their names until the hillsides echoed,
Jason gave orders for the voyage to be resumed. This
decision was loudly contested and, as the Argo drew
farther away from the shore, several of the Argonauts
accused him of having marooned Heracles to avenge his
defeat at rowing.

22. • Next, the Argo touched at the island of Bebrycos, also in the Sea of
Marmara, ruled by the arrogant King Amycus, a son of Poseidon. This
Amycus fancied himself as a boxer, and used to challenge strangers to
a match, which invariably proved their undoing; but if they declined,
he flung them without ceremony over a cliff into the sea. He now
approached the Argonauts, and refused them food or water unless
one of their champions would meet him in the ring. Polydeuces, who
had won the boxing contest at the Olympic Games, stepped forward
willingly, and killed Amycus after a long battle.

23. • The Argonauts put to sea again on the next day, and came to Salmydessus in
Eastern Thrace, where Phineus, the son of Agenor, reigned. He had been
blinded by the gods for prophesying the future too accurately, and was also
plagued by a pair of Harpies: loathsome, winged, female creatures who, at
every meal, flew into the palace and snatched victuals from his table, befouling
the rest, so that it stank and was inedible.
• When Jason asked Phineus for advice on how to win the golden fleece, he was
told: ‘First rid me of the Harpies!’ Phineus’s servants spread the Argonauts a
banquet, upon which the Harpies immediately descended, playing their usual
tricks. Calais and Zetes, however, the winged sons of Boreas, arose sword in
hand, and chased them into the air and far across the sea.

25. From The Symplegades To Colchis
• Phineus instructed Jason how to navigate the Bosphorus, and gave him a
detailed account of what weather, hospitality, and fortune to expect on
his way to Colchis.
• PHINEUS had warned the Argonauts of the terrifying rocks, called
Symplegades, or Planctae, or Cyaneae which, perpetually shrouded in
sea mist, guarded the entrance to the Bosphorus. When a ship attempted
to pass between them, they drove together and crushed her; but, at
Phineus’s advice, Euphemus let loose a dove or, some say, a heron, to fly
ahead of the Argo. As soon as the rocks had nipped off her tail feathers,
and recoiled again, the Argonauts rowed through with all speed, aided by
Athene and by Orpheus’s lyre, and lost only their stern ornament.

27. The Seizure Of The Fleece
• IN Olympus, Hera and Athene were anxiously debating how their favourite,
Jason, might win the golden fleece. At last they decided to approach Aphrodite,
who undertook that her naughty little son Eros would make Medea, King
Aeëtes’s daughter, conceive a sudden passion for Jason. Aphrodite found Eros
rolling dice with Ganymedes, but cheating at every throw, and begged him to
let fly one of his arrows at Medea’s heart. The payment she offered was a
golden ball enamelled with blue rings, formerly the infant Zeus’s plaything;
when tossed into the air, it left a track like a falling star. Eros eagerly accepted
this bribe.

28. • Meanwhile, at the council of war held in the backwater, Jason
proposed going to the near-by city of Colchis, where Aeëtes ruled,
and demanding the fleece as a favour; only if this were denied would
they resort to guile or force. All welcomed his suggestion.
• At Colchis, Aeëtes was prepared to let Jason take the fleece only if he
first performed a series of impossible tasks. These were to yoke a
pair of brazen-footed, fire-breathing bulls, the gift of Hephaestus to
Aeëtes, and with them plow a large field and sow it with dragon's
teeth, from which would spring up armed men, whom he would then
have to kill.

29. Medea’s Role
• Medea, Aeëtes' younger daughter, now enters the saga and brings to it
elements of magic and folktale. Through the agency of Hera and
Aphrodite, she fell in love with Jason and agreed to help him at the
request of Chalciope, mother of Argus (who had returned to Colchis with
the Argonauts). She was herself priestess of Hecate, as skilled in magic as
her aunt Circe. She gave Jason a magic ointment that would protect him
from harm by fire or iron for the space of a day. her sole condition was to
sail back in the Argo as his wife. Jason was summoned, and swore by all
the gods of Olympus to keep faith with Medea for ever.

30. • All day he ploughed, and at nightfall sowed the teeth, which armed
men immediately sprouted. He provoked these to fight one against
another, as Cadmus had done on a similar occasion, throwing a stone
quoits into their midst; then killed the survivors.
• King Aeëtes, however, had no intention of parting with his fleece,
and shamelessly repudiated his bargain. He threatened to burn the
Argo, which was now moored off Aea, and massacre her crew;
Medea, in whom he had unwisely confided, led Jason and a part of
Argonauts to the precinct of Ares, some six miles away. There fleece
hung, guarded by a loathsome and immortal dragon of a million
coils, larger than the Argo herself, and born from the blood of the
monster Typhon, destroyed by Zeus.

32. • She soothed the hissing dragon with incantations and then, using freshly-
cut sprigs of juniper, sprinkled soporific drops on his eyelids. Jason
stealthily unfastened the fleece from the oak-tree, and together they
hurried down to the beach where the Argo lay.
• An alarm had already been raised by the priests of Ares and, in a running
fight, the Colchians wounded Iphitus, Meleager, Argus, Atalanta, and
Jason. Yet all of them contrived to scramble aboard the waiting Argo,
which was rowed off in great haste, pursued by Aeëtes’s galleys. Iphitus
alone succumbed to his wounds; Medea soon healed the others with
ruineraries of her own invention.

33. • MANY different accounts survive of the Argo’s return to
Thessaly, though it is generally agreed that, following Phineus’s
advice, the Argonauts sailed counter sunwise around the Black
Sea. Some say that when Aeëtes overtook them, near the mouth
of the Danube, Medea killed her young half-brother Apsyrtus,
whom she had brought aboard, and cut him into pieces, which
she consigned one by one to the swift current. This cruel
stratagem delayed the pursuit, because obliging Aeëtes to
retrieve each piece in turn for subsequent burial at Tomi.

35. The Trojan Saga

36. The Children of Leda
• Leda, wife of Tyndareus, king of Sparta, bore four
children to Zeus, who visited her in the shape of a
swan; the four were born from two eggs—from the
one sprang Polydeuces and Helen, from the other
Castor and Clytemnestra.

37. • WHEN Helen, Leda’s beautiful daughter, grew to womanhood at Sparta in
the palace of her foster-father Tyndareus, all the princes of Greece came
with rich gifts as her suitors, or sent their kinsmen to represent them.
Diomedes, Ajax, Teucer, Philoctetes, Idomeneus, Patroclus, Menestheus,
and many others. Odysseus (he was one of the most prominent leader
of Trojan war) came too, but empty-handed, because he had not the least
chance of success. she would, Odysseus knew, be given to Prince
Menelaus, the richest of the Achaeans, represented by Tyndareus’s
powerful son-in-law Agamemnon.

38. • Tyndareus sent no suitor away, but would, on the other hand,
accept none of the proffered gifts; fearing that his partiality for
any one prince might set the others quarrelling. Odysseus asked
him one day:
• ‘If I tell you how to avoid a quarrel will you, in return, help me to
marry Icarius’s daughter Penelope?’
• ‘It is a bargain,’ cried Tyndareus.
• ‘Then,’ continued Odysseus, ‘my advice to you is: insist that all
Helen’s suitors swear to defend her chosen husband against
whoever resents his good fortune.’
• Tyndareus agreed that this was a prudent course. After
sacrificing a horse, he made the suitors stand on its bloody
pieces, and repeat the oath which Odysseus had formulated.

39. • It is not known whether Tyndareus himself chose Helen’s husband,
or whether she declared her own preference by crowning him with a
wreath. At all events, she married Menelaus, who became King of
Sparta after the death of Tyndareus.
• Yet their marriage was doomed to failure: years before, while
sacrificing to the gods, Tyndareus had stupidly overlooked Aphrodite,
who took her revenge by swearing to make all three of his daughters
— Clytaemnestra, Timandra, and Helen — notorious for their
adulteries.

40. •The Olympian gods were guests at the wedding feast of
Peleus and Thetis. During the feast, Eris, goddess of Discord
(who was not a guest), threw onto the table an apple
inscribed with the words ‘for the fairest." Hera, Athena, and
Aphrodite each claimed it, and Zeus refused to decide the
ensuing dispute between Hera, Athene, and Aphrodite, and
let Hermes lead the goddesses to Mount Ida, where Priam’s
lost son Paris would act as arbiter(judge).

41. •Now, just before the birth of Paris, Hecabe had dreamed
that she gave birth to a boy from whom wriggled
countless fiery serpents. She awoke screaming that the
city of Troy and the forests of Mount Ida were ablaze.
Priam at once consulted his son Aesacus, the seer, who
announced: ‘The child about to be born will be the ruin
of our country! I beg you to do away with him.’

42. • Hecabe could not bring herself to do so; and in the end Priam was
prevailed upon to send for his chief herdsman, one Agelaus, and entrust
him with the task. Agelaus, being too soft-hearted to use a rope or a
sword, exposed the infant on Mount Ida, where he was suckled by a she-
bear. Returning after five days, Agelaus was amazed at the sight of a
healthy baby, and brought him home to rear with his own new-born son;
and took a dog’s tongue to Priam as evidence that his command had
been obeyed. But some say that Hecabe bribed Agelaus to spare Paris
and keep the secret from Priam.

43. Paris’ chief amusement was setting Agelaus’s bulls to fight one
another; he would crown the victor with flowers, and the loser with
straw. When one bull began to win consistently, Paris pitted it against
the champions of his neighbours’ herds, all of which were defeated. At
last he offered to set a golden crown upon the horns of any bull that
could overcome his own; so, for a jest, Ares turned himself into a bull,
and won the prize. Paris’s unhesitating award of this crown to Ares
surprised and pleased the gods as they watched from Olympus; which
is why Zeus chose him to arbitrate between the three goddesses.

44. • Paris was herding his cattle on Mount Gargarus, the highest
peak of Ida, when Hermes, accompanied by Hera, Athene, and
Aphrodite, delivered the golden apple and Zeus’s message:
• ‘Paris, since you are as handsome as you are wise in affairs of
the heart, Zeus commands you to judge which of these
goddesses is the fairest.’
• ‘So be it,’ sighed Paris. ‘But first I beg the losers not to be vexed
with me. I am only a human being, liable to make the stupidest
mistakes.’ The goddesses all agreed to abide by his decision.

45. • ‘Examine me,’ said Hera, ‘and remember that if you judge me
the fairest, I will make you lord of all Asia, and the richest man
alive.’
• ‘Listen, Paris, if you have enough common sense to award me
the prize, I will make you victorious in all your battles, as well
as the handsomest and wisest man in the world.’ said Athene.

46. • Aphrodite sidled up to him, and Paris blushed because she came so
close that they were almost touching. ‘Look carefully, please, pass
nothing over .... By the way, as soon as I saw you, I said to myself:
“Upon my word, there goes the handsomest young man in Phrygia!
Why does he waste himself here in the wilderness herding stupid
cattle?” Well, why do you, Paris? Why not move into a city and lead a
civilized life? What have you to lose by marrying someone like Helen of
Sparta, who is as beautiful as I am, and no less passionate? I am
convinced that, once you two have met, she would abandon her home,
her family, everything, to become your mistress. Surely you have heard
of Helen?’

47. • Never until now, my Lady. I should be most grateful if you describe
her.’
‘Helen is of fair and delicate complexion, having been born from a
swan’s egg. She can claim Zeus for a father, loves hunting and
wrestling and, when she came of age, all the princes of Greece were
her suitors. At present she is married to Menelaus, brother of the
High King Agamemnon; but that makes no odds—you can have her if
you like.’
• ‘Would you swear to that?’ Paris asked excitedly.
• Aphrodite uttered a solemn oath, and Paris, without a second
thought, awarded her the golden apple.
• By this judgement he incurred the smothered hatred of both Hera
and Athene, who went off arm-in-arm to plot the destruction of
Troy.

48. • Soon afterwards, Priam sent his servants to fetch a bull from
Agelaus’s herd. It was to be a prize at the funeral games now
annually celebrated in honour of his dead son. When the
servants chose the champion bull, Paris was seized by a sudden
desire to attend the games, and ran after them. Agelaus tried to
restrain him: ‘You have your own private bull fights, what more
do you want?’ But Paris persisted and, in the end, Agelaus
accompanied him to Troy.

49. • Paris participated in the games and won every sport he took part
in. He even defeat Priam’s sons Hector and Deiphobus. Out of
jealousy they decided to kill Paris, and attacked him. Just then
Aeglaus ran towards Priam crying “this youth is your long-lost
son.”
• Pariam summoned Hecabe, who confirmed it, and Paris was
welcomed joyously and feasts were held in Tory despite the
protests of priests of Apollo.

50. The Abduction of Hesione
• When Apollo and Poseidon built the walls of Troy for King Laomedon,
they were not given their due wages by Laomedon. Apollo sent a plague
upon the city, and Poseidon sent a sea monster. Oracles told Laomedon to
sacrifice his daughter Hesione, the sister of Priam, to the sea monster, the
city would be delivered from the plague. Laomedon did as he was told,
but Heracles, who was returning from the labor of Amazons, asked for the
immortal horses of Laomedon, which were a gift from Zeus, as reward for
killing the monster.
• Heracles killed the monster but was denied the promised gifts. Heracles
returned after some months with an army and sacked the city, killed
Laomedon, his sons etc, except Priam. He gave Hesione to his companion
Telamon.

51. • When another Council was called to discuss the rescue of
Hesione, peaceful overtures having failed, Paris volunteered
to lead the expedition, if Priam would provide him with a
large, well-manned fleet. He cunningly added that, should he
fail to bring Hesione back, he might perhaps carry off a
Greek princess of equal rank to hold in ransom for her. His
heart was, of course, secretly set on going to Sparta to fetch
back Helen.

52. • That very day, Menelaus arrived unexpectedly at Troy. Paris entertained
Menelaus and begged, as a favour, to be purified by him at Sparta, since
he had accidentally killed Antenor’s young son Antheus with a toy sword.
When Menelaus agreed, Paris, on Aphrodite’s advice, commissioned
Phereclus, the son of Tecton, to build the fleet which Priam had promised
him; the figurehead of his flag-ship was to be an Aphrodite holding a
miniature Eros. Paris’s cousin Aeneas, Anchises’s son, agreed to
accompany him. Cassandra, her hair streaming loose, foretold the
conflagration that the voyage would cause, and Helenus concurred; but
Priam took no notice of either of his prophetic children.

53. • The fleet put out to sea, Aphrodite sent a favouring breeze, and
Paris soon reached Sparta, where Menelaus feasted him for nine
days. At the banquet, Paris presented Helen with the gifts that
he had brought from Troy, and made bold advances. Helen
eloped with Paris that very night.
• On reaching Troy he celebrated his wedding with Helen. The
Trojans welcomed her, entranced by such divine beauty. What
was more, all Troy, not Paris only, fell in love with her; and Priam
took an oath never to let her go.